Enslavement
by Lizella
Summary: What sort of hope is left, in a world where General Woundwort wins the war? Where the few left are offered a life of darkness and slavery in Efrafa? Where each other and the will to survive are the only things left?
1. Worthiness

Authoress note: Okay – my very first attempt at a Watership Down fanfiction. This has been coming a long time, but I admit, fear kept me from doing it. Now I jump into the cold water. The only thing I can garantie for is a lot of drama and character indepth. Now for understanding:

This story is related to the TV series, rather than to the books, although you get the idea either way. It takes place somewhere after the 2nd series and so is a spoiler or a complete change on the 3rd. I have to say that I am really sorry for committing the crime of having killed off – starts counting but has not enough fingers – way too many main characters. I enjoy doing that. Although noone who knows me will wonder how come Bigwig is still alive. Okay, so based on the TV series Hyzenthlay is called Primrose (yes, Entei-Rah, but you really rubbed off onto me) and Blackberry is gasps a doe. And as in the series, she was in love with Campion. If you have any questions – free to ask them?

„General, you know I am your faithful servant, but..." the unsure voice of Vervain ended abruptly. "But what, Vervain?" General Woundwort inquired menacingly.

"They are traitors, General. And they will turn on you as soon as they get the chance to." "Are you hinting" the booming voice of General Woundwort replied. "That I am not capable of controlling two Owsla officers of my warren."

"That is not what I meant" Vervain quivered, his frantic mind searching for an escape route. "It is just because of who they are." He fell silent at the menacing stare of the huge red eye.

"I know perfectly well that they are not just some youths who try to disobey in their first proof of strength, I am well aware of what Campion and Bigwig are capable of."

"Have you heard?" Clover chattered, but her chatter was no longer cheerful, only an old habit. "No, what are they going to do to us?" a very young, fearful doe asked. Her name was Daisy and she was barely half a year old but had remained very small and fragile even for her age. Her fur that would naturally have been pure white, was tainted with dirt and mud and she was shivering.

"The General is going to give one of us to each Owsla officer!" All five does stared at her.

"We are only slaves to them" an older, pessimistic doe named Windflower replied. "An officer chooses the doe he likes best for his pleasure and can do with her what he wants. Noone is going to keep him from doing it."

They fell silent. "We can not let that happen!" Blackberry hopelessly tried to encourage her companions. "

"And what shall we do against it?" Primrose asked. Daisy had silently started to weep.

"This war has been gloriously won." General Woundwort started his speech from on top of his heightened position, looking down at the Owsla officers. At Thunderbird and Rowans, two very promising young bucks who were looking up at him in admiration. But it did not cause him to miss the fearful looks from Vervain or the judging stares of Moss.

Campion watched him with a remarkably well-kept neutral expression. No wonder he had been able to fool him for so long. Hatred, that powerful soaring feeling rose inside him. But no, he could not kill Campion, could not afford to. Too few capable officers were there at the moment, he needed a new generation of healthy bucks, willing to fight for his ideals, with no mind of their own.

He prefered the open hatred Bigwig directed at him. He was so much easier to look through, not being apt at hiding his feelings of any kind. But had he not too fooled him?

Though none of his officers had dared to say so, he knew that they disagreed with his decision of not killing Bigwig. He had assured them that if the need arose, he could get rid of him any time. But he was not quite as sure of that himself.

But if there was one thing he knew he could count on, it was Bigwigs strong sense of loyality towards those who had remained of the former Watership Down warren. And these were General Woundworts means of pressure.

"But in order to ensure the future strength and this way power and glory of Efrafa, we need a new generation of brave and heroic fighters. These does" and the six scared creatures were brought inside "have been choosen to be loyal and devoted marlis and to give Efrafa as many healthy bucks as possible."

Blackberry felt the poor Daisy keep shivering next to her. She tried calming her, but her own upset kept her from suceeding. Her mind was with all the friends she had lost. The past pained her so strongly that she was not sure if any future was to come.

"Our newest Owsla officers will have the priviledge of choosing first." General Woundwort would have expected more of an uproar than the few muttered remarks. But this was only one advantage of fear. But he had not gone mad, no, it was all a part of his plan.

"Campion choose." For a moment Blackberry began to hope again. Had it not only been a few days ago that he had claimed his undying love for her. If he got to choose first, she would not land in the dirty paws of those young too eager bucks, or, even worse, in Vervains. How she clung to the hope that love could survive a war and all those deaths and sufferings.

But when she met his eyes, he turned away and said "I choose Primrose."

Primrose did not seem surprised in the least and almost smiled as she went towards her former lover. She had onced lived in this place, she would have to try to get used to it again, but with Campion, it all seemed her much lighter.

"Bigwig." Woundwort boomed. "Blackberry" the adressed simply said.

Of course she was grateful towards him. It meant that none of the Efrafans would get her. But the shock was still too recent. She had been sure that Campion would choose her, and not Primrose. And now he had taken his past, instead of his present, into the future.

"Would you have prefered our dear Vervain?" Bigwig asked her. "No, of course not." Blackberry replied. "All of this just does not seem real."

"You will find it real, soon enough." Why did he always have to be so harsh? "I still can not believe it" her voice grew quieter. "That they are all gone." "You better do!" was his last comment before the next does were chosen.

And she felt a pang of guilt with each decision. When Thunderbird took Lillian. When Rowan choose Windflower in an awfully oedipus kind of way.

It lessened with Moss, who she deemed to be a good fellow, who of course asked for Heather.

But it worsened a lot when Vervain, cowardly, ugly, old goat-Vervain as they had called him, longed for Daisy and the small white doe tried to appear strong and failing miserably at it.

Clover was the last to be chosen by a buck named Pepper who appeared to have two times more muscles than brain.

Finally General Woundwort allowed all of them to go into the separate burrows to "enjoy" their new partners presence. She could see how some of the does would have wanted the speech to stretch out into eternity instead.

"I suppose I should thank you." Blackberry turned to Bigwig. And with a sudden force the feeling of reality hit her. Watership Down had been destroyed. And so many of her friends had been killed.

How she wished for them to be alive. Wanted to hear some of Dandelions stories for the hundredths time. Needed to watch Fiver as his eyes opened wide during another vision. Searched for the endless boring adventures Captain Broom would have been telling. Listening to the praises of Owsla honor from Captain Holly. She even longed for Bluebells annoying jokes and Hawkbits constant complaints. And she wanted back their clever and compassionate leader.

"You are not the only one who misses them." Bigwig interrupts her rememberings.

She nods. "I know. But this pain does not lessen at being shared."

Authoress again: Okay, what do you say? Say it in a review?


	2. Desparation

Authoress note: Back again. Thanks for the reviews. No questions so far? The idea of this story still strikes me as weird, but I actually like it. Okay, I find it needs to get a higher rating, because I am actually mentioning rabbit raping – frith this is bad. I am going insane at last! Encourage me, which is bestly done with reviews!

How had I managed to fall asleep? I almost felt guilty, as soon as I awakened.

Either my mind is fooling me or it is really colder here than it ever was in Watership Down, even in the darkest winter. Unvoluntearily I shiver and almost hesitate to open my eyes. I do not want to see the world inside Efrafa, that awaits me.

At the other end of our small burrow, Bigwig continues snoring. He looks rather peacefully when asleep, quite the contrary to his constant anxiety during his wake time.

I look around, nothing to see, the burrow is plain and cold and uninviting and I find myself simply wishing for the kind of comfort the Honeycomb provided. There are no guards at the entrance, even if it, of course, only leads even deeper into Efrafa and not at any side to the green and grassy fields I long to see. Still I think it must be somewhat better, than what the usual outskirters have to endure here. So there are certain but few advantages to being the slave of an Owsla Captain.

My curiosity urges me out of the small cave silently, I feel like I have done something terrible, commited a crime of some sorts. As it is still in the middle of the night, it seems awfully silent, except for the sounds I do not want to hear. Quiet screaming, a yelp of pain, cracking bones and small sobs, which are the nearest.

I hesitate before I follow the sounds of the silent weeping. I find Daisy in a burrow with a faint smell of onions, my nose aches with distaste, Vervains burrow. At least he seems to be out at the moment, or else Daisy might not have dared crying. She jumps back in shock as soon as she sees me. After recognizement dawns on her, she calms down a bit. "Sorry" she quietly says.

"What for?" I ask, hating the ugly rabbit who has done this to her even more, if that is possible "If anyone has to be sorry, it has to be the old goat" Her ears tilt in fear as her eyes frantically search for a sign of the insulted. Gladly there is none.

"What has he done to you?" I softly try to ask. "You do not know?" she replies faintly, keeping shivering. "The General" she speaks with fear "needs strong young bucks, he has ordered all Owsla members to give him some as soon as possible. That is after all, why we were given to them." Wonderful! Terrific! Simply great!

"I see" I reply "not the Generals way to waste any time." "Your master did not take you?" Oh dear Frith, this is getting worse every second. And for her it seems all so normal, poor little thing.

"First of all, he is definitely not my master. And Bigwig seems to have forgotten to mention that part of the deal" Part of me is mad at him, how are we expected to work together and get on with each other, if he does not even tell me such an important fact. But another part understands how awkward it must be to even approach that theme.

"Oh" is all Daisy answers, for lack of better words. I wonder if I have actually scared her. "I am sorry for being so harsh" I tell her. "Getting used to this is very hard for me."

"I understand" she does not look like it. Then she silently and unexpectedly asks "How was it in Watership Down?" and her young eyes show an eagerness I have not seen before.

"It was wonderful, from the top of the hill you could oversee the whole valley, the burrow was hidden by an old oak tree and inside there was so much room. We dug it into one big chamber, that whe called the "Honeycomb"." I got sort of carried away with my memories.

"That sounds beautiful." She sighs. "And how where the others, the Watershippers, you must have all gotten along so well?"

Frith, it hurts. But I know she does not mean to.

"Mostly yes, but we were all very different in character and disputes were part of the daily routine. Some did not adjust well to orders and could not handle living together in a society in peace. But we got along, more than that, in a way, we were a family. It just took some time"

And that was were I found myself crying again. Even if I wanted to appear strong in front of the already enough scared young doe. " I am sorry." I tried to compose myself, cleaning my eyes with my paws. "It is just so unbearable, that we were six when we left Sandlefort Warren and then gladly found more and more friends who joined us and now it is only Bigwig and me closed down in this damned place. And all the others are" Both of us startle at the sudden voice, dear frith, it is Vervain.

"What are you doing here? Putting ideas into my Daisys head?" he squeals at me.

"She is not yours." I reply, my anger at him rising again. "Oh, yes. She is." he claims "Just feel lucky that the traitors got to choose first. If it had been me, you would not be allowed to run around freely and speak of betrayal." But Vervain fails to intimidate me, as much as he suceeds on Daisy.

"I will get someone to show you manners" it sounds like the temper tantrum of a youngster.

"I am going to take care of that" Bigwigs voice not only surprises me, but luckily also my agressor.

Vervain sneers, but of course he does not dare standing up to him, too cowardly for that, not to mention that he would loose anyway. "You better control her, or she might get into deep trouble and so will you. The General can always take her out of your custody and hand her over to someone more capable. It just takes one more slip." At that moment I could live with death, if I only got to murder Vervain first.

"Now wait, you" Bigwig is definitely angry now and that combined with his bad temper is going to end in a catastrophe. His pose ready to attack, I pull him back. "No. You regret it in a few minutes, if you attack him now" "I regret it for the rest of my days, if I do not!" his voice is sparked with hate.

Woundwort may not like Vervain, but if Bigwig kills him now, it will surely be our end. And if he could, for once, think before act, he would know that too.

"We better go back to our burrow" I feel like a marli scolding her son, despite the fact that he is quite older than I am. "Please" I enforce as much power as I can muster into this word.

Bigwig stops, although I believe it is merely the time I gave him to rethink his hasty decision and not the impact of my words. "Now look at that, she gets him to behave, not the other way around." Vervain mocks, seemingly feeling much more like a proper buck now.

This time it takes all my physical force to restrain Bigwig and somehow get him to move towards our burrow.

"Why did you just sneak out that way? When I woke up and found you gone, I thought they had taken you. I searched everywhere, I even questioned a young officer, who is close to the General, if he knew something. And then I find you just decided to look around this wonderful burrow, without telling me." He was really mad.

"And now I lost my authority, Vervain will not respect me any longer and if something like that happens again, I might loose my worth to the General too."

" I am sorry" not an empty floskel this time, I meant it. "It will not happen again."

But having closed one problem only led to another. My cause for anger, that time.

"You should have told me, that we have to produce a litter soon! I mean, how were you going to do it, without my knowledge? Surprise me while I am sleeping?"

He looked taken aback for a moment. Okay, maybe I had again gone a bit too far.

"You think I would" "No" I cut him off, "I do not. I just meant, that you should have told me, no matter what topic it is about. We have to work together and we can not do that, if you keep information from me."

"I got it" he snapped. "I have to go on patrol now, with one of those young, over-eager followers he has. Of course the General takes care not to put me on patrol with Campion."

"Be careful" I wonder where that had come from, knowing he was always running straight towards trouble and fighting. "Tell that to someone else" he retorts before hopping off.


End file.
